Remnents
by ajweston
Summary: The first chapter was actually the backstory to a character i made for a SW rpg, but i liked it and decided to continue it. Legacy era setting ie about 200 years after the original trilogy.


The Y'Toub star rose over Nar Shaddaa's skyscrapers, reflecting off of the rare glint of metal buried under dirt in scum that covered everything in the refugee sector. The light crept through the curtains of Ordon Larolen's small apartment, waking him. The first thing that he noticed was the smell. The putrid odor of garbage that seemed to linger everywhere he went, though this was to be expected here. At night, the smell subsided, slightly. But during the day, especially during the summer as it was now, the sun cooked the trash and other foul smelling things that littered the entire moon, making the Twi'Lek's lekku twitch. Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, Ordon stood and dressed. Today he was meeting a contact at the local bar to discuss a business opportunity.

For some time, he had not had much work. For several years now, he had been used as muscle for one of the local Hutt crime lords, but had lost his position when this particular Hutt's crime ring had been taken over. This was part of the system's ebb and flow though. Most of the galaxy's crime scene was controlled from Nal Hutta and the various takeovers and other interactions among the world's inhabitants had far reaching effects on business throughout the galaxy.

Ordon had not always lived like this. He had been born in the outer rim colony of Aduba 3 near the Maw cluster. It was an agricultural society with only a few inhabitants. Ordon had worked through most of his youth training to become a technician for the various machines needed for farming, as well as a mechanic for the transport freighters. He learned to fly at a very young age and was transporting crops to the lunar space port by himself at the age of twelve. He also became a marksman under the tutelage of his father, learning to defend livestock from the predators found on Aduba.

He was orphaned at the age of fifteen when his home was captured by part of the remnant Imperial army. Ordon had escaped in the family's freighter and had been lost in the galaxy for the last quarter century. His first jump through hyperspace brought him into Hutt space and he had worked here ever since, working for whoever was paying the most. Using his skills as a mechanic, Ordon modified the freighter extensively, turning the cargo space into his home for the first few years and arming it with some laser cannons and a turret. The ship was slow, but it got him where he needed to go and was generally able to slip past both Republic and Remnant forces unnoticed. He eventually dubbed it the Specter. Unfortunately, his lack of income prevented him from fueling his ship and he was stuck on Nar Shaddaa trying to find someone willing to pay in advance.

An hour after waking, Ordon strolled into the bar. He sat in his usual corner table and surveyed the bar. A Bith band played on a small stage, while a few of the bar's all night patrons snored on. The place was musty, like every other building in this sector, and dark. The shades were almost completely closed and few streaks of light coming in gave an eerie look to the space. A human bartender sat behind the counter cleaning a dirty glass with an almost as dirty cloth. Everything was covered in dust.

The door slid open and a man walked in. He was short and stocky, but had a powerful build. A scar ran from the top of his shaved head down to his short beard. A blaster was strapped to his hip and he wore heavy plasteel armor. He surveyed the room briefly and then walked directly over to Ordon.

"You Larolen?" he asked gruffly, sitting down.

"Possibly," Ordon said sitting up, "you must be Meric"

"I am," the man said, pausing for a moment, "I have a job that you might be interested in. I have a small operation based out of Nar Shaddaa working against the Remnant for the Republic. The Remnant has a base nearby in the Cyax system and we need local help finding and infiltrating it. It would also be good to know whether or not the Hutts have sanctioned this base and if not, what would they do about it."

He sat back as he finished speaking and once more glanced around the bar to see if anyone was listening in. The bartender was still wiping the dirt around on a glass and was just as uninterested in the patrons as he was in his task. Ordon thought for a moment.

"First off," he started, "the Hutts don't sanction Remnant activity. They have business all over Republic space and they don't want to risk it for anything. Also, they don't like the Republic having operations in their space, so I wouldn't advise going to them about it. Second, whether or not I want to help is based solely on what you're offering as payment, I hate the Remnant, but not enough to hit them for nothing, especially in my current financial situation."

"Of course," Meric chuckled, "I am offering you fifteen thousand republic credits, or an equal amount in whatever currency you wish. Of course, a venture of this magnitude shouldn't be undertaken on good faith alone, so I offer you five thousand now and the rest afterwards."

Ordon could barely conceal his surprise, most of his previous work had earned him the bare minimum required to survive, but this was great. Perhaps his luck was starting to turn.

"Deal," he said, extending his hand. Meric shook it and stood.

"Good," he said, "the money will be in your account by this evening. I need information on the location of the Remnant base, so if you have contacts, look into it."

"I will," Ordon said, also standing. This deal would be his ticket out of Hutt business and off of Nar Shaddaa. Maybe he would start a shipping company between core worlds or something along those lines, but first he had to get this job done. As he left the bar he began to rack his brain for possible information sources. 

One week later, Ordon sat in the Specter's pilot seat. It was a good feeling to be back in the ship's cockpit after such a long time. With the prepayment, he had fueled the ship, bought several gas cartridges for his blaster rifle, and had even procured a pair of military grade detpacks. Meric sat in the copilot's seat to Ordon's right and there were a half dozen other soldiers strapped into seats in the main hold. Ordon flipped a few switches and the Spectre's engine roared to life. The ship lifted gently off of the rusty landing pad and rocketed off into the sky.

Ordon had tracked the Remnant base to Da Soocha V, a moon of Da Soocha known for its rocky spires formed by ancient volcanoes. The place had, ironically, been used as a base by the Rebel Alliance and later by the Republic for almost a decade during the Imperial Civil War after the fall of the Empire, but that was almost a hundred and fifty years ago now. The planet's surface was covered in mile high rock formations and was, in Ordon's opinion, a good place to have a base. His contact was part of a local mining guild that had worked on Da Soocha V until they began losing miners. At first, they had attributed this to a predatory species that was native to the moon, but a body had been found riddled with blaster burns and they had subsequently left. When Ordon told him of his suspicions, Meric had fully agreed and had assembled his team.

Clouds swirled around the ship for a moment and suddenly the stars appeared. Ordon flew a course that avoided nearly all of the major shipping lanes and to an appropriate jump site.

"What are we going to do if we find this place?" Ordon asked Meric as he opened the navicomputer to plot a route through hyperspace.

"This is mostly a scouting mission," Meric said, looking over the data screens in front of him, "we want to get into the base and assess their strength. We can't do a whole lot though, because if they know we're there, they might scare and leave before a Republic force can be summoned."

"And if we don't find anything?" Ordon asked.

"We will," Meric said, "they've been striking out at some of our stations in the area and we've traced most of their jump routes back to this area. They're here somewhere."

Ordon agreed silently, and finished locking in a jump route.

"Strap in boys," he called back into the main hold, "this might be a bit of a bumpy ride."

The stars seemed to jump forward into the cockpit, as the ship jumped into the vortex of light of hyperspace. The ship rattled for a second before the ride smoothed out.

Five hours later, the Specter decelerated at the edge of the Cyax system. Ordon plotted a route for the autopilot to follow and headed back to his weapons locker. For a mercenary, his array of weapons was very limited. His lack of funds prevented him from having the more expensive battle armors and a larger range of explosives and blasters, but he had the basics. He donned a padded vest over his jumpsuit and pulled on his utility belt and bandolier. He then attached his holster his belt and loaded his weapons. He kept a heavy blaster rifle and a sporting pistol. His home had boasted a variety of thick-skinned predators and the heavy blaster had been necessary to defend his farm from them. The guns were fed a special type of gas, which they ionized and shot in the form of a bolt. The bolt was a very effective projectile, and burned through almost anything. He replaced the gas cartridges on both guns and placed the rest of his ammunition in the bandolier. He also placed the detpacks in a small satchel attached to the bandolier. He also pulled out his modified blast helmet. The mask was standard, but the back had been cut to allow for Ordon's lekku to fit. He was one of few Twi'leks to wear a helmet on a regular basis, but then again, the armies on Ryloth were mostly primitive clansmen. Pulling a cloak over everything, he returned to the cockpit.

Turning the autopilot off, Ordon piloted the Specter through Da Soocha V's atmosphere on the opposite side of the moon from where the base was supposed to be. He knew that he could slip the Specter past most sensor arrays, but he wasn't taking any chances this time. Ordon spent the few hours weaving through the rock formations with his ship's sensors scrying for a signal of some sort. Eventually he found one and moved the ship towards it. When he got just over a kilometer away, he set the ship down in a crater.

"There's something nearby," he told Maric, "I can't get any closer without giving us up, so we'll have to go in on foot."

"Good" Meric said, pulling a pair of electobinoculars out of his pack along with a hand scanner, "let's go."

The group moved around the bases of the rocks for some time moving towards the signal's source. The rocks cast shadows over them and they used these to remain hidden from any possible observers. After some time, they moved around a rock formation and came within sight of an entrance of some sort. There was a door set just below an outcropping with a path leading down into the nearby valley.

"Guards," Meric said, passing the electrobinoculars to Ordon. Sure enough, a pair of stormtroopers flanked the door, toting heavy blasters.

"That's no good," Ordon said, "there's no way of knowing what's on the other side, plus, they probably have a high end security system. It'd be hard to get through and they'd know we were here."

"Good point," Meric said, "any ideas?"

Ordon scanned the area, looking for an alternate route, or an external building or something. At first, he couldn't see anything, but then:

"What about that?" he said pointing at a small column of steam emminating from a vent at the base of the rock formation the door was on.

"We'll find out," Meric said.

'Why did I open my mouth,' Ordon thought fifteen minutes later, as he hung suspended in the cloud of steam, crawling upside-down into an unknown environment. Being the smallest of the party, he had been selected to go down into the vent and explore it. He couldn't see a thing and the air was hot. Blindly, he felt along the walls of the shaft for several moments before he found another one branching off of the main vent. Luckily this one contained no steam. Ordon reached into his satchel and pulled out a comlink.

"I'm in," he said, "there's an air duct about ten meters down, but it's tight, you guys won't fit."

"Roger that," Meric called back, "see if you can find an entrance."

Ordon began pulling himself along the vent. It was slow work and he was trying not to make noise. His helmet's low light setting allowed him to see fairly well, but it majorly reduced his depth perception. He reached an intersection with another vent and took the route that he figured would get him closest to the only known entrance. As he crawled around the corner, a third shaft presented itself. Unfortunately for Ordon, this one was going down. He fell straight down the shaft ten feet before crashing through a vent and into the Remnant base.

He fell into a corridor nearly landing on a passing Imperial. The officer, needless to say, was surprised. Ordon, cursing to himself, quickly kicked the legs from under the man and knocked him unconscious with a blast with the stun setting on his pistol. He found a door nearby marked 'supply' and shoved the officer in.

"What happened?" Meric called over the comlink.

"I'm in," Ordon groaned, rubbing his back, "I'm gonna try and find an exterior door."

"Hurry," Meric responded.

Ordon began moving through the corridors looking for some sort of exit. Several times, he was forced to quickly duck into a doorway to avoid a passing guard. Eventually, he found his way to the exit he had seen earlier. He pulled the keypad off of its mount, exposing the wired underneath. Quickly, he ripped a few of them out and crossed them. The door opened, and Ordon stood face to face with a pair of surprised stormtoopers. Both turned and began to draw their weapons before a pair of blaster bolts flew across the valley and hit them.

"Good job," Meric said, walking up, "how'd you get in?"

"Accident," Ordon said, pulling a comlink off of one of the dead guards, "What now?"

"We need to find a computer terminal," Meric said, "my tech specialist can hack into their system and find out what they're doing here."

"Lead on," Ordon responded.

Ordon had found over the span of his lifetime that his luck came in short bursts. He had figured that falling down the air duct and almost landing on an Imperial had been his stretch of bad luck for the day. The second door the group went through proved him completely wrong.

The door was locked, so Ordon pulled the control panel off again to open it. Just as he did so, it opened with a dozen stormtroopers just behind it. For a few seconds, the two groups just stared at each other, but then they began to react. Luckily, Meric was quickest to get his weapon up. The first two stormtroopers fell to his blasts but the ones just behind them fired back. Meric was missed, but one of the Republic troops behind him wasn't so lucky. Ordon, rolled to the side, drawing his blaster.

"Run!" he shouted, shooting the control panel. The door's safety mechanisms activated and it shut, but another one further back down the hallway opened and more guards appeared. The Republic soldiers and Ordon moved as quickly as they could down the hallway, shooting back at the stormtroopers. The comlink that Ordon had taken earlier was buzzing with various orders and alerts. Ordon reached the door at the end of the corridor first and opened it. An armed officer stood on the other side.

"What the…" he started before Ordon punched him in the face. He reeled backwards, but still raised his blaster. Ordon grabbed his arm, pointing the gun at the ceiling just in time. The blast nearly blinded Ordon but he twisted the gun away from the officer and hit him with the butt of it. Ordon ran down the hallway as fast as he could, looking for a good room to go through. Most of them were marked 'barracks' followed by a number. Ordon groaned to himself and continued through the hallways. He turned to make sure that Meric and the others were still behind him. Unfortunately, three of the Republic soldiers had been lost, but the others were still covering them.

Turning back around, Ordon found a door marked 'Control I.' He hit the control panel and ran in. A half dozen technicians sat at computer terminals along the edge of the room. Ordon flipped his gun to the stun setting and knocked each unconscious. Meric and the others ran into the room and jammed the door.

"What now?" Ordon asked quickly, "It won't be long until they get through that door, and there aren't any other exits." He wished now that he hadn't come along and that he was back in his smelly apartment looking for a nice, safe smuggling operation to work with.

"My tech guy got hit," Meric said, "Can you get into their system."

"I can hack the stupid computer, just find a way out!" Ordon shouted.

"We have three minutes," Meric said, handing Ordon a datapad and pulling out a scanner.

Ordon hooked the datapad into the computer system. The security system was not very sophisticated and he quickly got around it. The memory banks carried information about several Remnant groups in the area as well as their future targets. Ordon transferred as much data as he could to the datapad and unplugged it.

"I got your stuff," he said, "now how do we get out of here alive?"

Meric smiled, "do you have an explosive device?"

Ordon and the Republic soldiers huddled in the corner as the Imperial troops cut through the door. At first, could hear the failed attempts to disengage the broken lock system. But those quickly ceased. Suddenly, a high pitched whine sounded and the door exploded. Several stormtroopers rushed in, shouting at the group to drop their weapons. The soldiers lay down their blasters and raised their hands up. Ordon hit his detonator.

The ceiling above the doorway exploded, blasting rubble around the room, but generally on top of the Imperials. The Republic force quickly gathered their weapons and climbed up the rubble into the base's superstructure. The group found itself in a cave of sorts, with metal beams stretching up to support the rocks above. The group ran above the hallways it had just fought its way through until they were above the way they had come in. Ordon placed his second detpack here and they retreated a safe distance. As he hit the detonator, Ordon looked back to see several stormtroopers crawling up through the other hole he had made. As soon as the dust settled, the group jumped through the hole and ran out the still open door.

Ordon covered the kilometer back to the ship faster than the others. He ran up the boarding ramp and strapped into his seat, starting up the engines. Meric and the others came running into view, followed by an entire platoon of stormtroopers.

'Where do all these guys come from?' he thought as the others got on board. There was a big jolt as Ordon rocketed off from the ground, he heard a crash from the back as everyone who was standing fell, but he didn't care. The ten thousand credits almost didn't seem worth it now. Just as he thought he was free, a pair of dots came up on his sensors. He groaned and ran the scanners.

"What's going on?" Meric asked, walking into the cockpit.

"TIE Interceptors coming up behind us," Ordon groaned. Just as he said it, a pair of blaster bolts flew past.

"Do you know how to fly?" Ordon asked.

"Yes," Meric said, sitting at the copilot's chair and switching the controls to himself. Ordon jumped up and ran to the back of the main hold climbing up into the turret. He flipped the power on to the guns and pulled up a targeting computer. The Specter was not nearly as fast as the Interceptors were it was difficult to get them in his sights. One of the TIE's hit the Specter right next to Ordon and he felt the ship shudder under the blow and could see the shields flicker a bit as they dispersed the blast. Ordon recovered just in time to get a shot off at the passing TIE, clipping its wing. The ship shot straight over the Specter nearly ramming it and spun off towards the ground. The other fighter proved more elusive, dodging Ordon's shots as the Specter cleared the moon's atmosphere. The TIE was difficult to see with the black background, but Ordon saw a quick glint of metal and fired. He hit the ship dead center and it exploded.

"Got 'em!" Ordon exclaimed, climbing out of the turret and rushing towards the cockpit.

"You might want to save that for later," Meric groaned.

"Why?" Ordon asked, only to be answered by a Star Destroyer coming out of hyperspace directly in the Specter's path.

'This is just excessive,' Ordon thought, sitting down at the controls. He jerked the nose of the ship around and dialed the throttle up to its maximum. Ordon was pressed back into his chair and his he felt an extreme of pressure around his eyes and sinuses as the ship jumped up to speed. Fearing what he might see, Ordon looked out the viewport to see the Imperial ship turn into an intercepting course.

"If we try to jump back to Nar Shaddaa, they'll get us before a route can be established," Ordon said turning to Meric, "bring up the navicomputer and find somewhere we can go without trying to pass them." A flash of light filled the view as a blast from one of the capital ship's turbo lasers flew right in front of the Specter.

"Hurry!" Ordon shouted. He directed as much power as the ship could manage to give into the rear deflector shields. It wouldn't do much against this kind of power, but it might help a little. The Specter's scanners began jumping off the scale as numerous fighters launched out of the Star Destroyer's bays.

'Never agiain,' Ordon thought desperately as the ship rattled from a hit, 'if I somehow manage to get out of this, I'm getting as far away as I can from Republic operations as I can.'

"Got it," Meric shouted, bringing Ordon back to reality, "punch it!"

Relief flooded through Ordon as the stars jumped forward at him, enveloping him in the familiar and, more importantly, safe vortex of hyperspace. He slumped back in his seat, trying to figure out how he had lived through the ordeal.

"That," he gasped, "was ridiculous."

Meric chuckled, "it's a living, but I will admit that wasn't an everyday job."

"I'd hope not," Ordon laughed sitting up and trying to discern any damage the ship had suffered. Luckily, the shields had held out against the hits, but they were severely drained.

'Great,' he thought, 'more repairs.'

"Where are we going?" he asked.

"Republic space," Meric said leaning back, "my soldiers and I need to deliver the information we have to our superiors. After that, we'll head to one of the bases in the core systems where we'll hop off and you can collect your payment."

"Good," Ordon grunted, thinking about what he'd do afterwards.

"You should look into working for the Republic," Meric said, looking out the window, "we hire on various people to help out with some of our tasks, especially those outside of the core systems. It's good work, and the pay isn't half bad either."

"Anything you can think of specifically right now?" Ordon asked.

"I heard that someone's putting together a group to go after a group of pirates," Meric smiled, "I could look into it for you."

'Pirates,' Ordon thought, 'I have yet to see the stranger side of this universe.' He stretched back in his chair and considered this as the Specter sped into the unknown.


End file.
